


The Voice of Never-Never Land

by Shadow_Chaser



Series: In Blinded Skies [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Don't try to hide secrets from Matt, Episode: s01e01 Into the Ring, Episode: s01e09 Speak of the Devil, Episode: s02e17 Melinda, Everyone kicking ass in this short story, Gen, He'll eventually find you out as both Matt and Daredevil, I told you Katie was a secret character, It's a St. Agnes Orphanage reunion!, Matt is a very handsome devil and everyone including himself knows it, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Episode: s01e13 Daredevil, Post-Episode: s02e21-22 S.O.S. Parts 1-2, Referencing Episode: s02e19 The Dirty Half-Dozen, Secrets will be revealed, Skye and Matt are grown up, Skye is still bossy as ever, St. Agnes Orphanage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-03-31 04:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3964996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Chaser/pseuds/Shadow_Chaser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Secrets are never a good thing.  Skye learned it the hard way, but understands why some things need to be a secret.  The problem is, others have secrets of their own...some far more deadly.  The search for the Inhumans Initiative was not going to be easy, but Skye is determined to make it work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

New York City always had a distinctive smell, feel, pulse for a city as old as it was; one that Skye loved and hated at the same time. She pulled her jacket closer to her, fighting against a crosswind that blew down an alleyway as she crossed the street to the other side. It was warm and summery, not quite muggy as July and August could get, but on this side of June, it was as if mother nature could not decide whether to be the cold winter or hot summer. Spring was completely out of the door for the northeast corridor, the coldest temperatures on record stretching deep into late May and early June. She loved the no-nonsense feel of the city, where celebrities were noticed, but never harassed or asked for autographs. It was a New York thing – you just did not bother people and people did not bother you – unless they wanted money or some unsavory dealing from you, but that was another story.

It was also a city that tried to ignore the crisis that wasn't aliens raining death and destruction from the sky. Ignoring crime in waves, ignoring the money trail of corrupt politicians and law enforcement that cropped up in the wake of the Chitauri invasion. It was a city that was deeply selfish in minding its own business and ignoring the pleas of help from others. It would come together in a national crisis, like September 11th, or even the Chitauri invasion, but then quickly turn around and bitch and complain about how they were not getting the money they deserved and then some more.

But it was her city.

Or at least it used to be until she could not stand to grow up in St. Agnes Orphanage and left years ago, hitch-hiking her way across to the other side of the coast. To start fresh and start anew. Still, there had always been a part of her that missed New York. And truth be told, she was a little glad to be back here, even though it was for other reasons.

Coulson had received word from one of his contacts that Lincoln might have been sighted in New York and more specifically, Hell's Kitchen. How he had been pinpointed into such an area was beyond Skye, and while she had been curious as to why overtures had not been made to him since they knew him to be in the area, she also understood it at the same time. Coulson wanted Lincoln to be part of the new Inhuman Initiative that he was putting together and since Skye was nominally the leader of the Initiative – backed by Coulson – and the only member to boot, she was sent to personally recruit him.

She also knew that Coulson wanted to ask Lincoln lingering questions about what had happened on the _Iliad_ since he had all but disappeared in the aftermath. Agent Weaver was sending regular dive teams to search for the quinjet she had scuttled into the water with the rest of the Terrigen crystals, but she had not reported anything back yet. There were other things also occupying Coulson's attention, otherwise, Skye knew that he would have gone with her to find Lincoln. Simmons had disappeared under rather mysterious circumstances, leaving Coulson scrambling to find out where she might have gone and questioning Bobbi if there was any chance that she might have been brainwashed by HYDRA during her stint undercover. There was also the fact that a lot of Jiaying's Inhumans had gone into hiding, and Coulson needed to make sure that none of them had militant intentions towards SHIELD itself. That part she knew he was delegating a part of it to Maria Hill and the new Avengers.

She pulled her jacket closer to her, squinting against the gust of wind before it died down again and she continued walking. Coulson had told her that Lincoln was possibly in Hell's Kitchen, and though the area was relatively small compared to the rest of the Manhattan Island and New York City as a whole, it was still twenty five blocks. It was also twenty-five blocks of hidden nooks and crannies which meant that Lincoln could be anywhere. Coulson had given her the name of the Agent in the area who would help her scout out, but had orders not to approach Lincoln, Coulson wanting Skye to be the one to do all of the talking.

Agent Bishop was supposed to wait for her at the local parish, and though Skye was not a particularly religious person, she understood the value of meeting at such a place. Safe, anonymous, and utterly benign, it was the best cover an Agent could have considering the circumstances in which Hell's Kitchen found itself in. She had read local reports of a masked vigilante who patrolled Hell's Kitchen with ruthless efficiency, somehow able to ruin criminal empires with the barest of ease and a seemingly preternatural skill at hearing and recording of evidence. Skye could see how meeting Agent Bishop in another area could bring down the Devil of Hell's Kitchen on them, but she could not help but wonder if this mysterious “Daredevil” as the media was dubbing him, was maybe a gifted individual?

That was something for Coulson to decide, not for her, though she had asked about the potential for encountering Daredevil and the Director of SHIELD had told her to keep her options open. It was secret spy speak for, feel him out, get a read on him, and if he would be an asset, try to recruit him. Skye was pretty sure Daredevil was a he, considering the drawn pictures and descriptions. She was also pretty sure that if she ever encountered Daredevil, she would be hightailing it out of there, powers or no. She considered herself a pretty bad recruiter – her first and only attempt ended with Mike Peterson with Deathlok enhancements.

“Yeah, no recruitment meetings for me,” she muttered mostly under her breath as she turned the corner to where the parish was and stopped, blinking in surprise.

There were _crowds_ of people and a lot of children running around screaming in delight. It took her a moment to realize that this was one of the bi-annual open house days of St. Agnes Orphanage which was located across the street and a few buildings down from the parish itself. She remembered them in a vague manner, having spent most of them indoors at the Mother Superior's computer than outside with the other children as they laughed and played with each other or received free food and treats. The nuns themselves were outside supervising the children and conversing with prospective parents and other members of the community so they really did not keep an eye on things inside. She had spent it honing her hacking skills on the Mother Superior's computers, occasionally tweaking grades at the specialized private school she enrolled at and also monitoring her friends' grades and noted files, absences, and the like, to ensure that they too stayed at the school.

It had eventually caught up to her as she had been unceremoniously kicked out and sent for a one month stay at juvie, but it had been worth it in her opinion. She and her two friends got a good education and needed relief from the toils of the Orphanage itself.

“Huh...” she muttered as she walked forward, the corner of her lips turned up in a wistful smile at the sight before her. She was a little more than amused at the sight of several kids running around, a couple of them wearing masks that looked like Thor, Iron Man, even one kid was wearing a makeshift Captain America design and coloration that was clearly and origami-version of a samurai hat. A couple of girls were following them, one of them yelling that she was the Black Widow and another yelling that she was the Hulk and would smash them. Skye briefly wondered how a pint-sized girl would smash as a gender-bent version of the Hulk, but figured that the girl probably could throw a punch better than the boys she was playing with. Whatever floated the kids' boat, she supposed as she deftly stepped around them and nearly ran into a Sister who gasped in surprise.

“Oh, I'm so sorry dear,” the woman was at least in her fifties, but Skye paused, recognizing her, but could not place her name...

“Wait...Sister Mary?” she smiled hesitantly and saw the Sister nod before peering closely at her.

“Mary Sue-, uh, I mean, Skye?” the Sister asked and Skye nodded before she impulsively engulfed her in a hug. “Oh my dear, it is so good to see you again after all of these years!”

“You too, Sister, you too,” she replied before releasing the older woman who wiped away a tear before taking one of her hands into her own wrinkled ones.

“You have no idea how much we missed you when you had run away that night,” she replied, “but I am so glad to see that you look so well, and so healthy too, Mary-er, Skye.”

“I'm sorry,” Skye apologized, “I'm so sorry I left-”

“No, don't,” Mary suddenly interrupted, “Mother Agatha was wrong to punish you in that manner. She should have forgiven your transgressions instead of making you do such things. It is not the way of God and his forgiveness to do such things.” The elderly Sister squeezed her hand gently, “I am glad to see you though...things have been rough lately for the Orphanage-”

“Uh...I'm actually here to meet someone at the parish,” Skye broke in hesitantly, feeling a little bit guilty that she did not bring much money on her to donate to the Orphanage, but Sister Mary only smiled at her.

“It is all right, Skye...but please, if you do have some time, spend it here, there is free food, treats, and you know the children always like to hear stories from the others who had lived here.”

“Some still cry?” Skye did not know why she could feel her insides twisting in an unusual sort of pain-filled sadness at the mention of her old home.

“Always, dear, always,” Mary replied, “and there are those who have the resilience like you had to help ease their burden, to accept them when they have just lost their parents or had none. With the recent destruction three years ago, a lot of them have nowhere to go.”

“I'll talk to a few,” Skye glanced down at her watch and noted that she had at least fifteen or so minutes before she had to meet Agent Bishop in the parish, but maybe it would be fifteen minutes to make a kid's life better. She had done that much during her stint at St. Agnes.

Sister Mary released her hand and patted her gently on the shoulder before walking away, chatting to a couple that had arrived and were looking a little lost. Skye watched her interact with the couple for a few seconds before she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A little girl, probably no older than seven, was sitting on one of steps that led into the Orphanage, watching everything with wide frightened eyes. She clutched a ratty looking stuff toy that was probably a duck-pillow of sorts, and had definitely seen better days, in her arms.

“Hi,” Skye sat down next to the girl, making her flinch before she moved just a little bit away from her to show that she did not mean her any harm. The girl relaxed before shyly looking at her.

“You have pretty hair,” she reached out with a tentative hand and fingered one of her strands as Skye watched.

“Took me two years to grow it out like this,” she said, letting the girl play with her hair. She did not touch the girl's hair, immediately understanding that the girl was hesitant about any sort of contact judging by how she had flinched when she had sat down.

“It's pretty...” the girl replied softly.

“I'm Skye,” she introduced herself, pausing for a moment to let the girl say her name, but instead, saw that she was occupied in making curls at the end of her hair, “you're new here aren't you?”

The girl nodded numbly as she absently clutched her stuffed duck-pillow closer to her. “Don't cry, okay?” Skye said boldly and saw the girl flinch a little, “the others don't like it when you cry.”

“I...”

“I would give you my Blankie, but he got lost years ago,” Skye absently reached out and snagged a flyer that was floating around, staring at it to briefly read about the wonders of the newest food truck menu on it, before folding it in half in her hands.

“Someone took Blankie?” the girl asked.

“Sort of,” Skye shrugged as she continued to fold the piece of paper. It was a little harder with the shape and size of it, but she added a few modifications as she felt the tug of her hair, the girl still playing with it.

“Someone tried to take Mr. Platypus,” the girl clutched her pillow closer to her.

“That's mean,” Skye replied, “you want to point out to me who would do that? I'll give them a talking to like an adult.”

“...You would?” out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl staring at her with wide eyes.

Skye only smiled a little before pointing towards Sister Mary, “You see that Sister over there?”

The girl nodded.

“Well, if you give her Mr. Platypus on occasion, she can take care of him for you. He'll come back smelling nice and then the others might not take him from you.”

“Sister Mary is scary,” she whispered into her pillow.

“She is, but she told me my name was Mary,” Skye shrugged and saw the girl stare at her, puzzled, “then I told her that I don't want to be called Mary and wanted to be called Skye. She's the first one to tell the others to call me by my real name and to stop taking Blankie away from me.” It was a bit of a fib and mashing of the truth, but the girl nonetheless looked at her in awe.

“Really...?” she blinked.

“Really,” Skye finished the final fold before handing over the sparrow she had folded from the food truck flyer, “here you go. It's not Blankie, but it'll not make you cry, okay?”

“...Okay,” the girl still looked hesitant, but clutched the origami sparrow in her hand with a delicate fist.

“What's your name, girl?” Skye asked, feeling a bit more bold.

“Kamala,” the girl replied quietly, still tugging gently at her hair as she made spirals in it.

“Well, Kamala, I'm Skye. If anyone bothers you, tell Sister Mary and Sister Mary can tell me. I'll talk to them like an adult,” Skye said before the girl nodded and looked up, seeing another person run by.

“Um...”

“Go on, and show off Silverbird, okay? He won't make you cry,” Skye said and saw Kamala nod before letting go of her hair and running off, no doubt to show her friend what she had received. Skye watched her go, a sense of nostalgia filling her.

“It's nice to know that you're still as bossy as ever,” a voice she vaguely recognized spoke to her left and she turned to see a handsome man with a boyish looking face and wide smile on his lips. He was wearing a very nicely cut business suit, though the tie was a bit loosened, giving him a rakish air of sorts. However, she noted the ruby-darkened glasses and white cane he held in front of him-

“Matt?!” Skye felt her jaw drop a few inches, “Matt Murdock?!”

“Skye,” the smile on Matt's face grew wider and Skye lept to her feet.

“I am going to hug you Matt,” she announced seconds before she launched herself into his arms and embraced him with a back thumping laugh.

She felt him shift and return her embrace with a surprisingly gentle one, but she could feel the hard planes of muscle moved across his arms and upper back before she released him and stepped back. She let him adjust himself, tapping his white cane to ensure that he was still standing in nearly the same spot. “You've been working out,” she commented wryly and saw a faint blush creep along his cheeks before laughing, “and still can't take a compliment from a girl.”

“Oh I can take one,” he shot back, “just not from you.”

“What, just because I'm practically your sister?” she grinned and saw him roll his sightless eyes behind his red glasses.

“I thought we got past the teasing stage,” Matt shook his head.

“Nope,” Skye replied, “totally did not get past that stage. Still on it in fact. You have to tell me everything about your dating life, or if you're married and have kids. I have to be the cool aunt that basically gets to spoil your kids silly with presents and the like-”

“Not married, so sorry to bust that bubble,” Matt shrugged.

“Aw, come on...really? Handsome devil like you?” Skye mocked pouted, crossing her arms, “and just so you know, I'm looking very judgmentally at you.”

“Oh I can tell,” Matt managed to give her a skeptical look behind his glasses and she only grinned in reply.

“Hey Matt! Matt!” a new voice spoke up beyond them and Skye turned to see a man and a woman, both wearing business suits, hurrying towards them. The woman was holding a snow cone of sorts while the guy had a Styrofoam cup in his hands. The man was a little heavier than Matt, but had a kind looking face. The woman, however, Skye could instantly read a haunted sense of something from the way she smiled, but they both looked rather surprised to see her.

“Foggy, Karen,” Matt turned to greet them before gesturing to Skye, “found an old friend from way back when. Skye, this is Foggy Nelson, my partner in our law firm, and Karen Page, one of our associates. Guys, this is Skye, one of the few friends I had while growing up in St. Agnes.”

“Hi,” Skye greeted, shaking hands with them before glancing at Matt, “law, huh? Knew you were good for that school.”

Matt coughed a little bit and Skye shrugged, “I just shrugged. No worries, no grudges for what happened back then, all right?”

She noticed Foggy's eyes lighting up, “Oooohhh, you've got dirt on Matt's childhood? Almost no one has that...”

Skye only laughed, “I do not kiss and tell on unless I'm on the witness stand, Mr. Nelson.” She could tell that Foggy was very interested in her, but at the same time moving just a little bit closer to Matt as if he needed to protect him. He was a good person and more than likely a good friend to Matt.

“Foggy, just Foggy. Mr. Nelson is for judges, potential clients I really don't like, and prosecutors who are annoying,” Foggy nodded, “and what's this about kissing-”

Skye's watch beeped and she glanced at it, noting out of the corner of her eyes, Matt's lips pinching a bit tighter whenever he heard something a little too sharp for his ears. “Crap, I'm gonna be late...”

“Late?” Karen asked, looking at her puzzled.

“Meeting someone else,” Skye frowned, wrinkling her brow. As much as she wanted to stay and catch up, she needed to meet Agent Bishop before the SHIELD Agent got suspicious. “You guys'll be here later?”

“Yeah, probably going to stay a bit. Letting the community know that Nelson and Murdock is there for them,” Matt was looking at her with a look that she did not know what to quite make of, but ignored it as she nodded.

“Hopefully I'll see you guys later then. Matt, great seeing you after all these years!” she waved at Foggy and Karen before hurrying off, pushing her way past the crowds. Maybe it was the wind, or maybe it was the years spent near Matt Murdock, but she could not help but grin at Foggy's statement.

“Dude, she is _hot_ , did you like, date her when you were a kid?!”

“Foggy...no,” she heard Matt's reply, still as long suffering as she remembered way back when, “she's like my sister...” That was still the Matt Murdock she remembered and knew.

Skye managed to push her way through the crowds, the rest of Foggy, Matt, and Karen's conversation lost in the ambience of the streets, and managed to enter the parish without any problems. She stopped for a moment at the entrance, a bit unsure of what to do as she stared at the basin of holy water to the side. She had seen and occasionally accompanied Matt whenever he ventured into the church, but like always, stood to the side after the entrance, watching him with a mix of wonderment and puzzlement at his actions that he seemingly did by rote. To her, entering a church when she was not particularly religious herself felt odd, and made her feel a little unworthy at times.

“Don't worry, you weren't the only one who felt weird entering a sacred house of worship, Agent Skye,” a feminine voice spoke from the shadows and Skye nearly jumped, automatically raising her hands defensively.

“There's supposed to be code words and blah blah, but I think the fact that I tore up Blankie would probably be enough of proof that I am who I say I am,” a woman just a few years older than her stepped away from the shadows, a collapsable composite bow in one hand, several well masked arrows on her back. She had straight black hair and pale skin along with bright blue eyes. She looked vaguely familiar, but Skye could not figure out where she had seen the woman before.

“Agent Bishop?” she tested and the woman nodded with a razor sharp smile on her face.

“Agent Kate Bishop,” the woman introduced herself, “or you might remember me as Katie, Skye.”

For the second time in the span of less than an hour, Skye felt her jaw drop in surprise. “K-Katie...?”

 


	2. Chapter 2

“K-Katie...?”

SHIELD Agent Kate Bishop only shrugged and flicked something on her bow which shrunk in her hands before she holstered it on her back. “I did say that I tore up Blankie, Skye.”

“But...”

“I ran with a bad crowd after the two of us got kicked out. Circus of crime of sorts...then got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Was recruited by Clint Barton and am now training to be the next Hawkeye. Director Coulson kept me informed of what's happening and I was a secondary source between Barton and Maria Hill of the Avengers to confirm intelligence and the like,” Kate tilted her head a little, “um, Skye, you can close your mouth now.”

Skye had not realized that her mouth was still hanging open and closed it with an abrupt click of her teeth. “Sorry..I...uh, wow,” she pushed her hair back a little, shaking her head in disbelief, “really? SHIELD? Coulson? That sort of thing?”

Kate arched an eyebrow and placed her fists on her waist, “I can say the same for you, Ms. I-Used-To-Be-On-The-Terror-Watch-List-Due-To-My-Hacking.”

“Er, I think I, well, we still are, the whole HYDRA-SHIELD thing, you know?” Skye smiled hesitantly and Kate laughed lightly.

“Touche,” her former childhood friend nodded before her smile turned a little more fond, “it's good to see you, Skye. Even if it has been a while...”

Skye nodded, “You too...just...didn't expect this...”

“Well, I didn't expect _you_ either. Coulson only mentioned that he was sending in someone familiar with the situation. Didn't realize that it was you until I spotted you walking towards the parish.”

“How?”

“You've got the secret agent walk down pat now,” Kate grinned, “kind of similar to Agent May's, if I really want to be specific.”

Skye laughed a little, “Well, she is, or was my S.O...”

“Was? Did May-”

“No, she's fine, actually taking a vacation with her ex-husband, but I'm...not too sure where we stand right now,” she chewed her low lip for a moment, pondering the delicate existence between her and Melinda May. She respected the woman, but when the whole thing went down at the secret Inhuman compound, she knew that it had broken a trust that had been between the two of them. Even though they had both fought on Gonzalez's carrier as allies, May had not specifically said that she had been forgiven, only darkly joking that she still had a headache from being knocked out by her earthquake powers.

“Well, Coulson said that the agent he was sending knew Lincoln and knew how to deal with his...special abilities?” Kate looked at her, questioning at the same time asking her for answers.

“I've had contact with him before, so Coulson's sent me in to bring him in as a potential asset,” Skye replied, deliberately keeping it vague. It also told her that as promised, Coulson had kept her powers a secret, even off the index that SHIELD had rebuilt. He had only told Kate the bare minimum and left it at that for her to fill in the blanks.

“Okay, okay, I've learned not to pry,” Kate held up her hands, both covered in arm guards, “first rule of watching things and evaluating things from a distance, don't get involved.”

“Uh huh...” Skye raised an eyebrow at her words and she shrugged in return.

“What-”

The sudden creak of the church's door opening silenced the two of them and both turned to hear and see the tapping of a white cane before Matt's face appeared.

“Matt?” Skye walked over as Matt stepped into the church, his body propping the door half open as the delighted screams and laughter of children filtered in.

“Hey, Skye, just wanted to catch you before you left or something. Foggy, Karen, and I are going to head out for dinner in a few minutes, wanted to know if you wanted to join us,” Matt asked, a boyish smile on her face.

“What, not gonna invite me too, Murdock?” Kate asked, and Skye saw Matt focus his sightless gaze on her, a puzzled frown on his face before he shook his head, the frown morphing into his boyish smile once more.

“Is that Katie I'm hearing?” he asked and Skye could not help but roll her eyes and make gagging noises at the instant _charm_ her childhood friend had just flipped on like a light switch.

“Oh my god, I'm stuck in a freaking high school drama class,” she groaned as Kate laughed, taking Matt's outstretched hand and shaking it. There was a quick moment where Skye caught Katie whispering something too low for her to hear, but agent leaned in and kissed Matt gently on the cheek before stepping back and letting go of his hand.

“It's Kate Bishop now, Matty Murdock,” Kate teased, “and can I get an invite to this little shindig you're having with little miss bossy-girl here?”

“I'm not bossy,” Skye mock glared at Kate who only grinned in return.

“Matt there you are!” Karen's voice echoed outside the door and Skye saw Matt turn, pushing the door a little wider as both Karen Page and Foggy Nelson ran up. Skye glanced back in time to see Kate shuffle something behind her, the sound of a zipper of sorts zipping up before she stepped forward, revealing that her cleverly concealed arrow pack and collapsible bow were now expertly hidden in what looked like a backpack of sorts. That had to be some really good gear she had, Skye thought, a little bit jealous of the tech she had more than likely received by proxy from Stark Industries. Coulson got a few Stark Tech gizmos and she had a few upgrades, but they were sourced through third parties or hand-me-downs from Maria Hill whenever she was able to smuggle it out to them.

“Matt, what are you...oh hey Skye, and hello gorgeous...” Skye had to grin a little at Foggy's abrupt stop, eyes rooted to Kate. “Hi, I'm Foggy Nelson,” Foggy pushed past Matt, eliciting a short 'hey!' of protest from him that Skye had to laugh at and only shrug at his wounded looking pout directed at her. She watched as Foggy held his hand out to Kate who shook it, a bemused expression on her face. “Matt's partner in our law firm. If he's harassing you, I can totally take on a case for you-”

“Foggy...” Matt shook his head, the same long-suffering sound in his voice as Karen giggled next to him.

“What, just expanding our clientele base,” Foggy stepped away with a smile on his face, “don't tell me, you know her too?”

“My other childhood friend,” Matt said before gesturing towards the outside with a hand, “Skye, Kate, you're both welcomed to join us for dinner.”

“Please say yes, please say yes, I really, really want dirt on Matt's childhood,” Foggy jumped in with an infectious smile that Skye could not help but mirror. She liked him a lot, especially with his generous heart that he clearly wore on his sleeve.

“Foggy, you're not going to cross examine my friends during dinner,” Matt chided and Foggy only gave him a look.

“I gave you a look Matt, and no, I'm not. I'll leave it up to Karen here-”

“Hey! I'm not getting involved in that,” Karen adopted a horrified look on her face, but she too was smiling.

“Ow, oh, ow, Karen,” Foggy mimed being stabbed in the heart, “got me good there. Right in the heart. Thanks...”

Skye did not miss the put-upon sigh that Matt wore as he gestured for the two of them to follow him. “I'm going to leave you two clowns behind...”

“And what? Get to the restaurant yourself?!”

“I've got two ladies to escort me there,” Matt shot back as Skye and Kate exited the church and she helped his case by sliding up to Matt's cane-less side and offering her arm like the old days, staying a half-step ahead of him as he reached out and grabbed her arm, his grip a lot more firm and a lot more sure than she remembered. He definitely had built a lot of muscle since she had last seen him. She could feel Kate shadowing their steps behind him and felt her tap her shoulder in a slightly rhythmic pattern. A signal that they would talk about Lincoln and his whereabouts later. She nodded, using the movement of her head to tuck a strand of hair behind her ears to cover it.

“So,” she said brightly, focusing back on Matt as Foggy and Karen joined up, Foggy still pretending to nurse his mock wound much to Karen's amusement, “where to?”


	3. Chapter 3

“-then the Sister basically had the hamster dance on her screen each time she booted it up,” Kate finished, taking a swig from the bottle of beer she had, “could not even get rid of the damn thing with a reboot of the whole machine until one day, it just mysteriously disappeared...”

“Thank you, thank you,” Skye took it as her cue to bow and did so with a seemingly grand gesture of applause from Karen and Foggy, grinning under her eyelashes at Matt who only had an exasperated look on his face. It was a little bit nice to know that he still secretly disapproved on some level of her slightly-illegal abilities to work her skills on a computer.

“Statue of limitations has expired on the case of the Sister's computer,” Foggy warned with a grin before he nodded, “should have been there when Matt and I were signing up for classes at Columbia Law. You would think the school would have really good T3 internet connection.”

“Nah, we're so spoiled on internet and wifi in this day and age,” Skye shrugged with a flick of her beer bottle.

“You still have the 'I disapprove of your life choices' expression at your age Matt?” Kate pointed out and all glanced at the blind man who hastily turned it into a sheepish looking expression.

Skye laughed and shook her head, “Matt always wanted to stay on the good side of the law, right? Hence the lawyer part?”

There was a general ripple of laughter that rang through the table of five, but Skye caught Foggy coughing into his hand, almost seemingly muttering 'bullshit' into it. “Foggy?” she grinned at the slightly chagrin look on Matt's face at Foggy's words, “you have stories of Mister Law-Abiding Matt Murdock actually breaking the law?!”

“Totally college-related pranks, Matt's pretty sneaky with his cane and being blind and all,” Foggy grinned, but Skye recognized that there was something forced behind it; it was similar to the grimacing smile she saw Simmons wear from time to time. There was definitely something Foggy knew about Matt and probably Matt knew that Foggy knew, but neither would he tell. She only rolled her eyes in return and sighed, putting the matter to the side before changing the subject.

“So, you guys are obviously lawyers, your own practice?”

“Yeah, Nelson and Murdock, located right in the heart of home in Hell's Kitchen,” it did not show in Matt's voice or expression, but Skye could somehow tell that Matt was glad she had changed the subject. That was curious indeed and while she knew once, not very long ago, she would have pried, excited and curious about a friend she had not seen for a while, she was much more careful about her discretion into secrets and the like. Her own family secret nearly got her killed and there was still a lot of distrust amongst some of the other members of SHIELD that had been absorbed by Coulson's SHIELD in recent weeks.

“Aren't you guys...” Kate started and Foggy nodded proudly with a smile on his face.

“Yup, the guys who helped take down Wilson Fisk a couple of months ago,” Foggy replied, “we just did some digging and Karen here got the ball rolling.”

“They tried to blackmail me and with some help from Daredevil, er, the guy the papers called the Devil of Hell's Kitchen keeping Fisk's goons off of my back, and these two, we were able to bring Wilson Fisk to justice,” Karen said with a wan smile and Skye could sense that there was a lot of internal grief and sadness in that pride.

“Yeah...read about the deaths attributed to Fisk and the people he had in his pockets,” Kate reached out with a hand and squeezed Karen's tightly, “I don't know if you guys knew any of them, but for what it's worth, I'm sorry that my employers didn't get involved and stopped this earlier.”

“Who do you work for?” Matt tilted his head and Skye shot a look at Kate, wondering if she was going to say SHIELD. As far as she knew, SHIELD was still on the government's shit list, considered a terrorist organization even for all of the progress Coulson was making with General Talbot.

“I'm an independent contractor information broker freelancing for Stark Industries,” Kate replied simply and to the point that Skye started in surprise for a moment before regaining her calm. “It's not much, but I have connections that maybe could have enabled Stark to send his team of lawyers or maybe the Avengers to help you guys.”

“You know the Avengers?” Foggy jumped in and Skye could instantly tell that he was somewhat suppressing the giddiness in his voice. It also did not help that Matt was shaking his head in exasperation.

“Foggy's been a fan of them since that incident three years ago,” Matt explained and Foggy only looked at him and nudged him with a shoulder bump.

“Dude, they saved the city, I'd totally be a fan of them,” Foggy replied.

“Well, I don't know them per se, but I do some of the intel work for them. Like I said, independent information broker,” Kate smiled crookedly before pointing a thumb at Skye, “and like any good information broker, I like to expand resources and the like. Figured Skye might remember some of those skills way back when.”

“I'm not discussing my skills in front of two lawyers,” Skye knew that she shouldn't be surprised at how easily the lie and cover story came to Kate's lips, her childhood friend gifted in that sort of thing. But then again, she had learned the hard way that most of the lies that came from Kate's mouth always had an inch of truth in them, so she supposed the truth of her cover story _was_ in fact that she was working for Stark Industries gathering intel – albiet under a SHIELD Agent cover.

“It's illegal, isn't it?” Foggy held up his hand, palm facing her, “I swear none of this will be recorded or reported to the proper authorities. We're really good at keeping secrets.” He jerked his head towards Matt, “And he's _really_ good at ferreting them out of people.”

There was a distinctive cough from Matt at the compliment that made Skye look at him before he shook his head a negative, seemingly able to see that she was looking at him. She glanced back at Foggy to see that the smile on his face was just a tad too tight and wonder if something had happened between the two in past for that comment to be met with the kind of reaction that had just happened.

“Of course, I wouldn't say no if say the lawyers of Nelson and Murdock want to drop me a line some time,” Kate pushed over a small business card across the table, “like I said, information broker. I've got eyes and ears all over the place and plus if Stark's lawyers-”

“I think we're okay working out of Hell's Kitchen,” Matt interrupted, his hands dancing for a second across the table, brushing Kate's, but took the card, “the corporate lawyer thing didn't work out so well for us, but we'll take it under consideration okay?”

There was something in Kate's expression that Skye distinctively recognized as a slight of sorts and realized what had happened years ago between the two of them still had not healed after all these years along with time and distance. Except Kate was professional and mature enough to nod and let go of the card that Matt was holding, drawing back and keeping a somewhat professional look on her face.

Skye suddenly faked a cough to break the awkward tension and looked at her watch. “Crap, I need to get going,” she said before looking at Kate, “er, you said your bosses wanted to see me about the assignment and pay?”

“Yeah, at the Tower. Cab or walk?”

“Walk,” Skye waved an absent hand as she stood up from the table, pushing her chair in, “definitely walking.”

Foggy, Karen, and Matt also stood up, the scrape of chairs alerting the waitstaff that they were leaving. “Hell's Kitchen's not really safe at night-” Foggy started and Skye shook her head.

“Thanks Foggy, but I think the two of us can handle the worst of the Kitchen,” she could see the worry in both Karen and Foggy's eyes and smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring one. “They make us tough here.”

Foggy nodded, his expression still dubious about their safety through the Kitchen itself, but seemed convinced enough to not press the issue any further. “Well, be careful, okay?”

“We will,” Skye replied as she and Kate moved towards the front door and headed out, the others following behind them after leaving some bills on the table for food and tip. “We should catch up next time I'm in town, all right?”

“Swing by the office, we're listed,” Matt offered, and Skye nodded.

“Sure,” she could still see Foggy hovering worriedly behind him, Karen waiting patiently near them, but far enough that she seemingly was not intruding. “I'm going to hug you again, okay?”

Matt only smiled briefly before Skye hugged him tight for a brief moment before letting him go. Maybe it _was_ taking advantage of the fact that a blind man could not see what she was doing, but she gave him a quick up-and-down, appreciative of the fact that her childhood friend had grown into a such a handsome man. While a part of her was still fiercely protective about him, that he was someone no one should ever take advantage of because of his disability, another part of her wondered where was the girl in his life. But with the soft cough of interruption from Kate behind her, she supposed that Matt was more than likely a little more leery and careful about the women he dated.

“See ya,” she waved at the other two before following Kate down the sidewalks that would eventually lead them to Times Square and from there, a straight line towards the Avengers Tower. She could feel their gazes boring on hers and Kate's back as they walked and it was only maybe three blocks away from them that the feeling disappeared.

At the same time, she saw Kate swerve into an alleyway and quickly followed her. “All right, what's the situation?” she asked, putting aside the dinner, conversation, and anything and everything about Matt Murdock and his friends to the side of her mind. May had said it was instrumental as an agent to be able to compartmentalize and quiet her mind, giving her the needed edge to survive and to be steady with her shots.

“I've been tailing Lincoln for the last few days, trying to get a feel for his routine as well as figuring out where he lived, and I've narrowed it down to a couple of buildings.”

“A couple?” Skye blinked and Kate turned her head a little shrugging.

“The guy apparently either had training to be secretive as possible, or he's just that good,” she replied and Skye frowned a little, remembering that Lincoln had been part of Jiaying's compound and they _were_ pretty secretive. She supposed that whenever Lincoln left the compound to study medicine he probably was very unassuming and adopted the kind of persona that would not attract any attention to the rest of the Inhumans.

“He's...grown up in a cult of sorts, that kind of secret-type of thing,” she offered to Kate who nodded as they made their way back across Hell's Kitchen and towards the area that she had spotted Lincoln in.

They fell into an amicable silence after that, Skye watching the streets with a careful, but unobtrusive eye as May had taught her. She adopted a casual harmless walk, something she had seen Coulson do time and time again. It calmed others, made them think he was utterly harmless, but it was also a walk that enabled her to reach for her hidden I-CER in the folds of her shoulder holster with perfect ease. To her amusement, she saw Kate adopt a more aggressive walk, as if she was hunting down a prey of sorts, but in a more sexy strut. Kate always had a flare for the dramatics, which sometimes made her lies with the hints of truth hurt that much more.

“So...you and Matt...” Kate started after a few minutes of silence.

“First time I saw him since that day,” Skye glanced over to her friend who only raised a silent eyebrow at her and she shook her head, exasperated, “you still think...?”

“The guy could _not_ keep his eyes off of you, blind or not back there in the restaurant. Skye, news flash, _everyone_ at the orphanage thought,” Kate's smile had a sharp edge to it, “why do you think I did what I did?”

Skye could only stare at her friend at her confession for a long moment before biting her lip and shaking her head, a bitter sorrowfulness filling her, “Okay, I'll admit, I was pretty hurt by it, but can't say I didn't expect it. I might have been oblivious back then, but you gotta know that Matt and I don't see each other like that. I just...don't like bullies who hurt others who can't defend themselves so easily.”

“...Yeah,” Kate hunched forward a little bit, drawing out her folded composite bow and absently playing with it. It was dark enough that it looked squarish in the dimly lit streets of Hell's Kitchen instead of its full unfurled length. “I did mean what I said back there in the church. Sorry about Blankie, about everything...maybe I was a bit jealous of what you and Matt had and wanted something for myself.”

“Hey, with that hellhole taking away everything that belongs to you, you've got no complaints from me. Just...you know...”

“Kind of wished I wasn't such a bitch about it, right?” Kate shot her a crooked grin before it sobered into something a little more serious as she looked up and around, “okay, I think he's around here.”

Skye paused, looking up at the short squat brownstones that peppered the area with a few larger skyscrapers, “Okay...can't just knock on every single door now, can we?”

“Probably not. Neighborhood's still reeling from the death of some old lady, Mrs...Cardenas I think, a few months ago. Criminal element, though news reports are blaming Wilson Fisk and the men he hired,” Kate looked around as they walked into an alleyway, her eyes narrowed as she eyed the emergency stairs.

“Kate?” Skye could see that she seemed a little more concerned than usual.

“I thought I saw something following us...from the roofs...?” she pinched her lips together for a moment, her fingers dancing across the guard of her bow as it snapped to its full length with a quick flick of her wrists.

Skye reached into her shoulder holster and grabbed the butt of her gun and slowly pulled it out, keeping it pointed down towards the ground as she too scanned the skies and surrounding area. She did not know how Kate could see in the dimly lit darkness, but nonetheless followed her lead as she began to climb up the emergency stairs of the nearest building. She followed and after a few minutes, they reached the top where Kate was frowning, an arrow drawn and notched in her bow as she stared at a shadowy area across the rooftop where the rooftop access point was.

“I don't see-”

“I know you're back there! Come out with your hands up!” Kate suddenly shouted towards the shadowy area, drawing her bow to its full length, arrow primed.

Skye tensed, pointing her gun in the same direction as Kate's seeing nothing but shadows until something seemingly melted from the shadows and stepped into the light. Her eyes widened in shock at the sight of a red-black clad man with what looked like devil horns on the cowl of his hood. His eyes were obscured by a blood-red tint and he looked like something straight out of her nightmares – or at least from the bible from all of the sermons and prayers the Sisters had spoken of through her years at St. Agnes. She had heard the news reports, even read a few of the headlines, catching up on news since her time at Jiaying's compound with no internet access.

“...You're the one everyone's been calling Devil of Hell's Kitchen...Daredevil,” she whispered.


	4. Chapter 4

“Are you following us?” Kate asked. She held her bow steadily on the vigilante the media had dubbed Daredevil. Supposedly it was reported that he prevented Wilson Fisk from escaping police custody.

“Redundant,” Skye muttered mostly under her breath, earning a quick glare from Kate before she directed her next words at the masked vigilante, “we're not here to cause trouble.”

“I think the gun in your hand and the bow in hers are indicative of trouble,” the vigilante replied in a dry and slightly hoarse tone. It sounded oddly familiar, but Skye could not quite place it.

“Or you know, just a couple of girls protecting ourselves from certain criminal and vigilante elements who have a rep of beating up guys with their, uh, bare hands...” even though the media had reported that Daredevil had stopped Fisk and that there was speculating that Fisk was the one behind bombing the heck out of Hell's Kitchen; there were those who still believed it was Daredevil that was behind the terrorist attacks. In this day and age, Skye knew that speculation was rampant and masked vigilantes or even superheroes were viewed with suspicion. Even the Avengers had not escaped media scrutiny unscathed, their actions in Sokovia and Johannesburg proof of that.

To her surprise, the corners of the vigilante's lips quirked up in what was a dry smile as he tilted his head in acknowledgment of her statement. “Call it a concerned citizen's duty if you will; your heartbeat sounded abnormal, similar to Nobu's.”

“Who?” Skye asked before she shook her head, “wait, mine? Or her's?”

“Hey-”

“Yours,” the vigilante pointed a gloved finger at her and Skye blinked, frowning at the same time trying to hide her surprise. “Nobu and his men were working with Wilson Fisk and were trying to transport a weapon known as Black Sky to Hell's Kitchen-”

“I'm definitely not working with this Nobu character,” Skye protested with a quick shake of her head as Kate frowned.

“I can vouch for her-”

“I believe you,” the masked vigilante canted his head a little, as if concentrating and Skye found the gesture oddly familiar. She had seen the gesture before...on a blind man she had re-met just a few hours ago. “Your heartbeat is abnormally deep, but its as if you had just grown into it, that you had not had time to master it like Nobu. You still react as if you're still...human...”

“Err...” Skye did not like what the vigilante was implying and quickly cleared her throat at the curious look Kate shot at her. “I'm still pretty human last time I checked,” she lied.

“So you were following us because you thought she was related to whomever this Nobu guy was?” Kate asked, drawing the attention of the vigilante back to her.

“The people of Hell's Kitchen are my responsibility,” the vigilante replied.

Skye narrowed her eyes. Just how long had the vigilante been following them? If he had spotted her and Kate in the church earlier talking about Lincoln and finding him? Or had he picked up on their conversation while they had been doubling back to where Kate said that Lincoln might have been hiding? If he had been following Matt, Foggy, and Karen...? Considering that he had all but told the two of them that he had heard her abnormal heartbeat from who knows where...?

“If there are those who want to take advantage or hurt them-” Skye tightened her grip on her I-CER, the wariness returning as Daredevil abruptly stopped, canting his head a little as if to hear something in the far distance. “There are multiple boots approaching the building next to this one from the nearby manhole, thick, precise, steady heartbeats, clicks- They have assault rifles-”

“Lincoln,” Skye breathed out quietly, her initial concern and wariness for the vigilante known as Daredevil pushed aside from the sudden fear for Lincoln. Someone else was looking for Lincoln and they had apparently pinpointed the building that he was in. She shared a look with Kate who was frowning.

“HYDRA?” the other woman guessed and Skye nodded briefly before making her decision as she faced Daredevil.

“Are you here to help or hinder us?” she demanded, staring straight at the blood-red eyes on the mask of the vigilante. She was leaning more towards the help column of things judging by how she saw him tense a little under the dim shadows of the night when he had talked about boots and assault rifles. But she still could not be so sure, as Daredevil's murky history was still up in the air. Skye had long learned that first glances were not everything, and as far as she knew Daredevil could be working for the people he had just reported entering in the building that Lincoln was possibly in.

The chance that Daredevil was deliberately leading them into a trap was not lost on her. Or maybe Lincoln was in this very building they had climbed to the rooftop. Kate had pointed out that she had identified these two buildings as ones Lincoln might be living in.

“I can ask you the same,” Daredevil replied and Skye's lips twitched with a quiet snort of dark humor. She saw him turn his head a little to stare at the building that possible HYDRA soldiers were pouring into for a brief moment before looking back at them, “Your friend Lincoln, is on the eighth floor, far corner apartment.”

“H-How?” Skye blinked and stared at Daredevil. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kate lower her bow and hurry to the opposite side of the rooftop in preparation to jump across it.

The look he gave her could have been called compassionate, but it was also oddly familiar. She definitely  _ had _ seen that same expression on someone else's face before – she just could not place who at the moment. “Of all of the heartbeats in that building, his is the same as yours, deeper, not human.”

Skye briefly chewed her lower lip, quickly running through what she knew about Daredevil from both the news reports and Coulson's briefs. She had been given a carte blanche in regards to the vigilante, but at the same time she could also see that he was reluctant in providing information. “Don't get involved,” she finally said and saw him start a little in surprise, “this is strictly between SHIELD and HYDRA.”

She had seen the consequences of involving others in SHIELD's battle against HYDRA and did not want to see any others mixed up in this. Most of all, she did not want those who had the ability to help others, those who were free from the whole SHIELD-HYDRA mess, to be a target for HYDRA or even for the government itself. It was bad enough that Daredevil was called both a terrorist and savior, and truth be told, she knew Hell's Kitchen needed someone to watch out for the innocents living there. Task done, she quickly turned her back on the vigilante and jogged towards Kate who had an arrow primed and nodded to her.

She let loose her arrow which lodged a grappling hook across to the other side. Skye accepted a carabiner hook and line from Kate as they rappelled across. It was an easy short jump across buildings, but why risk the potential for breaking a leg or taking a misstep when Kate had her handy arrowheads? She glanced back as she landed and saw the masked vigilante staring at them from across the building before turning back around and pointed her I-CER to the ground as Kate primed another arrow, pointing it straight at the rooftop entrance door.

She paused for a second, steadying herself before pulling the door open with a quick nod and Kate surged forward, ready to shoot anyone on sight. They headed down the stairwell, quick, quiet steps. They paused briefly as they heard the steady thump of boots climbing from the ground floor up.

“We're on nine,” Skye whispered back as Kate took a quick look down the stairs, the strobes of flashlights and red lasers indicating the movement of the soldiers.

“They're on three and definitely HYDRA, saw the patches,” she said as they slowed down, making their steps quieter on the stairs as not to alert the soldiers coming up. They could hear the loud echoes of doors being banged upon and knocked down. The numerous echos of 'clear!' being shouted comforted her on some level that the building Lincoln had apparently hidden himself in was all but empty. But it was also a problem because it meant that the HYDRA soldiers were going to move that much faster. They did not have the luxury of time.

They made their way down to the eighth floor and Skye hurried to the far corner apartment that Daredevil had indicated Lincoln was in, pausing by the door, her I-CER firmly in her hands. She knocked as Kate swept the area with her bow and sharp eyes. She had never known her friend to have such an attention to detail, but then again, maybe it was why she had been picked by Agent Clint Barton himself to train as the next Hawkeye.

“Lincoln, it's Skye,” she hissed as she knocked again.

She could hear the quick drawn breath against the flimsy door before the click of locks being unlocked and then the familiar face of her friend appeared. She could not help but grin a little at his wide-eyed surprise before they suddenly narrowed.

“What the hell are you-”

“HYDRA's somehow tracked you, I don't know-” she stopped as she looked down to see him brandishing a bloodied knife as he shook his head, staring at her with a firm look.

“I know that! What do you think I've been-” he hissed before peering out and Skye glanced to where he was looking.

“That's Kate, she's SHIELD, like me-”

“What-”

“Coulson's starting up an initiative and I wanted to ask you-”

“Hey, Skye, give him the pitch later, we need to get out of here-”

“That's impossible-”

“Holy shit!” the loud exclamation a couple of floors below them was followed by the sound of a lot of bullets being fired as Skye ran over to where Kate had pointed her bow and arrow down towards. She saw the strobes of flashlight turn from going upwards to downwards as the soldiers ran down stairs en masse-

“That's...Daredevil down there...” Kate sounded a little faint from shock before her expression closed up and Skye immediately knew what had happened. Far from following her request, the masked vigilante had gotten involved and had apparently either taken the worst route, or knew exactly what he was doing by going through the bottom floor front entrance to stop the HYDRA soldiers. As much as she appreciated the fact that Daredevil was delaying the HYDRA soldiers' advance, she also knew that she could not allow him to face  _ that _ many armed HYDRA soldiers alone.

“Move, move, get the fuck out of the way...give me a shot you asshole,” she heard Kate mutter next to him as she moved her bow this way and that.

Skye watched in awe as the vigilante known as Daredevil completely and utterly dominated his foes. He had timed his ambush perfectly as he took two down with twisting kicks and acrobatic flips along with throws she recognized as judo in nature. Just as easily, he dodged and blocked knife strikes from another one who had abandoned his gun for close-quarters-combat. The one with the knife got a broken arm for his trouble, sent screaming down a couple of flights as Daredevil threw him off the railing. His buddies however opted for their guns as she watched him shuffle his feet and dodge their fire with preternatural ease – as if he could seemingly track when the bullets would be fire – and twisted around the back of another, pulling an arm horribly out of position with a sickening crack. Almost as the same time, he lashed out with a high spinning kick, the pop-pop sound followed by the sparks of bullets hitting the walls as Daredevil kicked the grip on one of the soldiers. He followed it with an elbow smash to the face before flipping the soldier onto his back and sending him cartwheeling down the stairs.

Just as suddenly, Kate made a grunting noise of victory as she let loose the arrow she had primed earlier and a second later, Skye saw several HYDRA soldiers fly into the air, knocked back by the explosive arrow she had shot into them. Daredevil managed to duck behind the hapless body of one of them, using him as a human shield.

“They're flanking us upstairs!” she heard several of them cry as the strobes of light turned upwards and she shook her head, throwing her friend a sarcastic look.

“Thanks, now they're pissed at us,” she grinned tightly and Kate only gave her a wry smile in return.

“No problem,” she said as she drew another arrow and fired at a downward angle, pinning a soldier to the nearby wall.

Skye blew out a quick breath before launching herself from the railings towards the incoming soldiers one floor below. The angle and trajectory of her fall made her bowl straight into one soldier first with her feet as she slammed him into the ground, but she was already rolling off of him, the downward slope of the stairs working for her as she knocked the next one down to the ground by sheer force of her roll. She fired one bullet at the soldier's head, putting him out of commission before she twisted and ducked under the barrel of the next one.

She punched that soldier in the face, adding a quick blast of her powers to knock his jaw together with an audible click. A quiet  _ fwip _ of an arrow lodged itself in the soldier, knocking him off kilter. As they both fell, Skye twisted the dead body against her own, feeling the impact of several bullets hit the soldier before she slid underneath the body and scissored her legs together, tripping over several others. She fired several times, knocking out the others as she rolled to her feet. Her senses screamed a quick warning, but before she could turn and blast back the soldier that had gotten a bead on her, she saw him slam into the wall, a trail of electricity making him scream and shake like a leaf.

Skye watched in morbid fascination as the man shook against his own will, electricity playing across his features before he was unceremoniously tossed into several others coming up the stairs. She glanced up to see Lincoln with a flat expression on his face. Next to him, Kate had a wary one as she eyed him. The sudden scream and audible sound of bones breaking following by a meaty punch of silence made her glance back down to see Daredevil cleaning up the last of the soldiers, at the foot of the stairs that she had come down on.

He took looked up towards Lincoln, but just as suddenly turned his head to look at her. It was as if he sensed something she had not yet, his jaw tightening in what might have been fear-

Skye suddenly felt it behind her at the same time she saw the vigilante's expression change. She reacted on pure instinct and brought her hand up as she  _ felt _ the subtle vibrations of the bullet in the air that had been fired at her-

And just like that, she heard the quiet ping of the bullet fall to the ground inches before her own head. Everything seemed so slow as she turned to see the shockwave she had produced blast the soldier that she had thought had been shot dead by Kate's arrow, fly back. He slammed into the wall, his neck snapping to the side before he slid to the ground with a streak of blood painting the track of his body. Time seemingly sped up again as she turned to stare at the dead soldier that had tried to ambush her from behind.

“You...you're one of... _ them _ ...” Kate's quiet exclamation made her look up to see her friend staring back down in horror. Skye did not know if Kate knew she was almost pointing her bow and arrow at her, but she only stared back up at her friend, an ugly feeling filling her. The way Kate had said 'them' made her feel like an outcast, that she was different than her...almost like what Simmons had said when she had first gotten her powers. It  _ hurt _ .

She instead, gave her a wan smile, “Inhuman...if you want to be precise.” She saw Lincoln take a small step away from Kate's side, his hands raised a little defensively as Kate looked back and forth between the two of them. “Lincoln and I are...Inhuman...”

“C-Coulson know about this...?” Kate swallowed heavily.

“Yes,” it was the same feeling she had the day she had stumbled upon Kate and Matt. She felt like her heart was being squeezed through a very thin pipe, pressing down on her, weighing her down. It was a hurt that she did not know she could ever feel again. Even though she and Kate had parted on bad terms, just meeting her again today felt like the first step in repairing the rift that had been driven between them. And then now this...destroying whatever tentative first steps of healing what should have been a long faded wound – it felt more like ripping the band-aid off of an old one that had been left to fester for too long.

“You should get going, I can hear more coming from the sewers,” Daredevil suddenly spoke up, his voice quiet and neutral. Skye looked at him. With his red opaque eyes, she could not tell what he was thinking. But maybe it was her imagination that she thought she saw his expression as one of soft understanding; as if he understood what it meant to be different, to hide that difference.

“That's the problem...” Lincoln said, drawing their gazes back up towards him. He held up the bloodied knife he had been holding when he greeted them at the door, “I think they're tracking me. I can feel something right in between my shoulder blades, but I can't get to it...”

Skye frowned as she stepped over the bodies and hurried up the stairs, giving Kate a sort of wide berth as she backed away, her bow still drawn, but not quite pointed at them. She had an expression on her face that looked like she either wanted to run away in fear or fire the arrow them because they had powers. Skye resolutely ignored it as she saw Lincoln gesture with his hand to his bloodied back. There were definitely still-bleeding cuts from where he had tried to get whatever was in him out.

“How-”

“Someone must have known about it at the HYDRA base where they took me. I mean, you did kill all of the people there right?”

“Dr. List escaped,” Skye pressed her fingers gently on the wounded spots as Lincoln hissed a little in pain. She couldn't feel it with her fingers and frowned. “But the Avengers supposedly caught him, so I don't think he's the one to activate it.”

“Well, someone knows-”

“Let me try,” Skye blinked in surprise as Daredevil stepped forward, shucking off a padded glove and she nodded. She stepped to the side to allow him to feel out where the tracking device was.

“What-ow, ow, geez that hurts!” Lincoln yelped as Daredevil placed his hand on several points on his back and seemed to concentrate for a moment before he stepped back.

“It's very close to your heart,” he said as he put his glove back on and shook his head, “I don't think a knife would be ideal...surgery probably, but not a knife. My guess is that they placed it there to match your heartbeat so if you died, they would know, if you didn't no one could extract it without some surgical tools.”

“And endangering myself during surgery since I'll be out-”

“Tower's not an option if HYDRA's still coming,” Kate muttered under her breath, staring to the side at nothing in particular, “shit...”

Skye bit her lip and took a deep breath before meeting Lincoln's gaze, “I can do it.”

“What?” both Kate and Lincoln said at almost the same time. She saw them look at each other before turning away, both looking uncomfortable. Daredevil, thankfully, stayed silent, but she felt like she was being evaluated by him.

“I can vibrate the tracker enough to dislodge the battery enough for it to shut down. Then we can get you to the Tower and get it out without HYDRA breathing down our necks and blowing up half of New York City to get to you,” she offered, hoping that the nervousness she felt did not appear in her voice.

“Skye...h-how...?”

“Jiaying...” she said quietly to Lincoln's question and he frowned, “um...Cal ultimately stopped her, but...I...was...close to killing her by vibrating her body apart...” She looked away, clenching her fists to her side as she tried to push the memory of what her mother had done and was doing to her at the same time that it forced her to use her own powers against her in self-defense. She still could not think about it without wondering what would have happened if Cal, if her father had not been there. Would they have committed mutual suicide? Jiaying sucking the life out of her as she put the power of earthquakes into her body to shake it completely apart?

Lincoln's expression looked torn, “I'm sorry...”

Skye shook her head and adopted a quick mirthless smile on her face, “Anyways, I know I can get it enough to render the tracker inert, then we get the living shit out of here, okay?”

“We'll hold them off,” Daredevil seemed to have picked up on her unspoken request to not ask her any questions as he brushed past her and headed halfway down the stairs, picking up a couple of stun batons from the bodies of the soldiers they had just taken out. She could see that he had his own, but she supposed that stun batons did have an advantage over plain old billy clubs.

She glanced over to Kate who was staring at her with an unreadable gaze before she squared her shoulders and nodded curtly. “Do what you need to do Agent Skye. But do it fast.”

“Lincoln?” she turned back to her friend who gave her a sheepish smile.

“I would totally electrocute myself to get at the tracker, except I'd probably kill myself by not being able to find it and shock my own heart,” he commented before backing towards the door he had come out of so that they were not in the direct line of fire. Skye followed him as he turned to face the railings, conveniently putting himself in front of her and raised his hands. “You work your magic and I'll fry anyone who comes close, okay?”

“Sure,” Skye felt a little nervous as she shook her hand out absently.

“It's over here,” Daredevil had walked back up and gently pointed at the area where she should place her hand, “right above the blade, but nestled towards the upper curvature edge.”

“Thanks,” she said, giving him a quick smile before placing her hand on the area that he indicated as he circled out of her vision and she closed her eyes in concentration.

She let loose a quick quiet breath and squared her shoulders, breathing in and out, letting a calm fill her as she felt the air around her, felt the smallest vibrations and directed it towards Lincoln's body. When she had fought Jiaying, it had happened on instinct, her need to survive driving her desperation to feel the vibrations and rubbery pump of blood in Jiaying's heart, to feel each and ever single cell that died and lived, the electrons and neurons firing at an incredible rate. Jiaying had said that each object, person, and being in the world had a vibration of sorts and so she concentrated, directing her focus towards Lincoln's body. And just as suddenly she felt it around her.

It was a sensation she could not even begin to describe, being able to somehow _taste_ the vibrations, the feel of each tremor and thump of skin, of cells growing, dying, of blood pumping through veins. It wasn't that she was able to hear, but rather...feel, so to speak. She concentrated her efforts towards the area that Daredevil had indicated, feeling the shift of muscle that squelched and rubbed like the roughness of sandpaper and stretched rubber bands with the barest tremor of pain. She could feel the vibration of bones grinding against another, the weird tingle that hummed in the back of her teeth that she somehow knew it to be Lincoln's powers, ready to be unleashed. But she pushed past that, forcing herself to dive deeper, to feel for the abnormal electronic- There! She could feel the faintest pulse of vibration against the thumping rubber of heartbeat. It almost overpowered the faint pulsing signature, but Skye concentrated harder, feeling a slight wave of dizziness pass through her that she mentally pushed aside.

The vibration was so faint, so tiny that she thought she had lost it when the rubbery sensation of Lincoln's heart jumped a little. “Hold still,” she heard herself mutter, the words almost as if she had spoken them in the water, pushing through her lips that felt a little weird. It was almost an out-of-body experience if one could really call it as she nudged at the capsule, making it shake a little before it was suddenly drowned in the rubber of the heart-

She felt more than heard the hiss of pain and gritted her teeth. “Sorry, sorry...didn't mean to do that...”

“...Skye...” the exhalation of air almost felt like tear drops and Skye forced herself to focus back on the task at hand. She had never concentrated on her powers this hard or this actively before and the sensations she was feeling from such fine-tuned vibrations of what made up the human body was ruining her concentration. It made her feel heady, dizzied, and almost punch drunk in a way.

She focused again on the capsule, the small faint scratches like a tiny itch that crawled over her skin, a clockwork mechanism and could feel where the frequency was- And just as suddenly there was the faintest of pops that felt like someone had pricked her middle finger, drawing blood for a blood test. It took her another moment to realize that she had dislodged the tiny battery from the capsule. “Oh...it's...gone...” she thought she said, the words now feeling like they were being pushed through heavy, heavy thick molasses. She felt faint as the sensations of vibrations engulfed her, the sudden rubber heart beat increasing as it rubbed together, a grating, squelching, squishing sound that tasted metallic-

Skye only had the faint mental impression of her own body seizing for some odd reason, the play of electricity making her twitch before she thought she smiled at the ozone that assaulted her senses. She didn't know why she smiled. She could taste the blood falling to her lips and faintly realized she was bleeding from her nose, the dizziness that was threatening to engulf her- There were voices, two voices, one male, one female, shouting above her before she thought she heard someone else apologizing, someone male and it sounded oddly like Lincoln.

“I'm sorry...I can't get her involved in this. She can't know- The others, the royal family- They're after _me_ and she can't- She- Tell her I'm sorry...but it has to be this way...”

Skye suddenly blinked owlishly as she found herself looking up at the oddest angle, that something steady, powerful, was holding her in place, was seemingly hovering over her protectively. She could  _ feel _ the suppleness of the leather that cradled her, the faint air that told her someone female was also standing by her, shouting about trying to help them, to not run away because she would be sad, that she needed her friends nearby.

The sensation she had been feeling for a while now, abruptly stopped as clarity hit Skye like six-tons of bricks and she gasped. She choked for a long moment at the copper taste in her mouth, spitting blood past her lips, her eyes squeezing shut at the force of her exhalations. She felt herself being suddenly turned to her side as coughs wracked her body, pain filling her as she felt more blood being pushed past her lips.

“Holy shit, Skye, Skye?!” she heard Kate's frantic concern but Skye could not stop coughing. “Shit, shit, shit, don't do this to me girl! Not this-”

She gasped, her breath wheezing in and out as she started to black out from the pain wracking her whole body. In the moment before the darkness took her, she realized that she had over extended herself and that Coulson was going to kill her for pulling a stupid stunt like this. She felt herself being hefted up, the hard planes of muscle buoying her and making her feel safe. It had to be Daredevil who was holding her, the faint whiff of sweat, blood, and something that reminded her of Matt for some odd reason coming to her mind. Then, she slipped into oblivion.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Skye groaned, feeling like she had been hit by a truck as she blearily opened her eyes. The filtered sunlight through shades in the window dimmed most of the ambient light in the room, but there was just a particular sunbeam that managed to find its way through the cracks. She groaned again and threw her hand over her eyes-

“Good morning sunshine...” Skye paused in the middle of her movement and blinked open her eyes again to see Kate hovering over her with a wide, exaggerated bright smile on her face. She held a mug of something that smelled suspiciously like chamomile tea in her hands as Skye eyed her dubiously.

“What...” she stopped as she blinked at how  _ hoarse _ her own voice sounded and that was when Kate pushed the mug in front of her face.

“This will help,” she offered in a far more kinder voice as Skye slowly pushed herself up from the plush couch she had been lying on and accepted the mug of tea. “Gave us a bit of a scare there Skye.”

“Wha...?” Skye managed to ask as she gingerly sipped on her tea, the smooth chamomile soothing her sore throat. She noticed that the apartment looked lived-in and homely, but definitely had signs of cracks and dents everywhere. A fight had apparently taken place in the apartment, but it looked like the owner had ignored the need to repair or had not gotten to it yet. “This yours?” she asked, keeping her voice quiet as not to strain her throat.

“No,” Kate looked around with her before sitting down at the foot of the couch, Skye automatically curling her feet towards her own body to give her some room. She watched as Kate pulled the sheet and blanket out from underneath her before settling in the cushions, “Apparently belongs to a friend of Daredevil's. Wouldn't tell me her name and she wouldn't give it, but she's definitely a nurse. Wore a surgical mask when we got there, so I can't quite identify her, but she called herself Night Nurse.”

Skye blinked. “...Best superhero name ever?” she asked dubiously.

Kate laughed lightly, “I was thinking the same thing, but she patched you up. Said that we should get you to the hospital for a proper MRI and additional CAT scan to make sure you didn't scramble your brain, but she did say that you had the hallmarks of over exerting yourself.”

Skye blinked again and leaned back against her cushions, heaving a loud sigh. She could see Kate with her sharp eyes staring at her, the unspoken demand for answers warring behind the expected look she was giving her. “I...remember, vaguely...actually, where's Lincoln?” She half expected her friend to be here in the apartment with her, but so far, no one else seemed to make their presence known.

Kate made a face, “He...well, Daredevil and I thought he did this to you at first, but Night Nurse said that all you had to show was over-sensitized muscles and everything else, the blood, the fainting, that was was apparently your own fault. He's gone, Skye, just upped and left after electrocuting you enough to distract us.”

“What,” she stared at Kate, her voice flat as it scraped across her sore throat. She took another sip of her tea to soothe it.

“Lincoln...said something about some royal family being after him for what happened and something about that along with not getting you involved,” her friend shrugged, “was actually hoping you could tell me what the hell is going on...”

“I have no idea what royal family Lincoln's talking about,” Skye shook her head gingerly, mindful of the minor dizziness she was still feeling. “Maybe related to the compound I was in – long story, will tell you another time – but shit...” She seethed inwardly, “I was hoping...”

“I was about to pin him to the wall, you know...for hurting you,” Kate pressed her lips into a thin line, “he electrocuted you after you apparently got the battery loose, out, whatever. Deflected my arrow with some kind of electrical forcefield before he left. Hell, I think the resident Devil's of Hell's Kitchen was really close to going after him consequences be damned. I think you coughing blood in his arms made him reconsider that.”

“Really?” Skye was surprised.

Kate only smiled, “You're still that oblivious? The obvious of superpowers aside, I'm beginning to secretly think that you're real superpower is making people want to protect you the moment you meet them. Hell, we only met the guy last night.”

“I don't know who he is, if you're asking,” Skye replied defensively and saw Kate chuckle and nod.

“I know, but for a guy we only just met, and on top of that, seeing Lincoln and you...you're like the female equivalent of a chick magnet and you're completely oblivious to all of that...”

“The last time something like that happened, he turned out to be a cheating ex-boyfriend and another one who was a HYDRA mole in my group,” Skye raised an eyebrow at her and saw Kate wince.

“Fucking HYDRA,” her friend could only console her like that, patting her covered feet in a lame attempt, but Skye only shrugged.

“Eh, I shot him and don't regret it at all,” she gave her a wan smile and saw Kate nod once.

“Well, at least you're feeling better,” her friend said after a few minutes of amicable silence as she took another sip of her tea.

“Yeah, my throat hurts though,” Skye replied, “probably because of the coughing up the blood part.”

“So...” she could see Kate's unspoken questions about her powers, but the fact that her friend was hedging and sitting on them without actually asking them made Skye feel a little better. That while it seemed like Kate had initially mistrusted her, she seemed more open to finding out about her powers. It was a far cry from the Kate she had known long ago, always jumping to conclusions, short-sighted and not even seeing the big picture of things. Maybe she learned a few things and grew up at the same time since leaving St. Agnes Orphanage.

“It's recent, like Daredevil said,” she decided to at least throw Kate a metaphoric bone of sorts, “that's the first time I've ever done something like that...so...fine-tuned. I went somewhere for some training, didn't really finish it since my team needed me.”

“Heard through the grapevine from Agent Hill that Coulson and his team hit something big and hard recently,” Kate said and Skye nodded.

“Something like that. Hence why I was here trying to find Lincoln,” she gestured absently to the windows with a hand.

“I'll keep looking if you want. Hill might have me on some other missions since he's probably not in the area, but I'll keep looking if you want me to,” Kate offered before giving her a look of chagrin, “it's...the least I can offer after we last parted...”

Skye wanted to say that she forgave Kate for what happened in the past, but found that the words were readily stuck in her mouth. Instead she waved her hand, “It's okay.” It was not exactly forgiveness and she could see the spark of understanding hurt in her friend's eyes, but neither did it meant she held a grudge against her. “It's past. End of story.”

“Well, just in case you were wondering, the code phrase I  _ was _ supposed to give you to confirm that I was your contact was, 'let sleeping dogs lie,'” Kate shrugged, “the irony of those words kind of got stuck in my mouth.”

“Yeah, better let Hill know that maybe between the two of us, that isn't that great of a code word,” she was glad that Kate at least confirmed the code words. Even though she had no doubts about her friend, she had secretly been a little more than wary that Kate was a HYDRA spy or someone working for another faction that knew about her or Lincoln. She wondered if Coulson knew about her and Kate's shared history when they were at St. Agnes' Orphanage – and reasoned that he might have known on some level that they were both there around the same time period, but probably could not have known that they had been childhood friends. After all, Coulson had her files and the files of most operatives that worked under SHIELD including those who worked for Maria Hill.

Her friend only laughed lightly before patting her again on her covered feet, “All right, I'm headed back for a mission debrief seeing that you're awake and not going to pass out on us. The Night Nurse said to lock the door before you decide to leave, but if you decide to stay a few days, there is some leftover food in the kitchen along with the tap for water.”

“Generous,” she raised an eyebrow and saw her friend shrug again.

“Hey, I helped myself to some bologna sandwich with American cheese a couple of hours ago for breakfast,” Kate said before grinning at her, “it was extremely tasty.”

“Uh huh...” she could never understand Kate's fascination with sandwiches, even simple ones. Though she had learned how to cook and feed herself – her previous life of being on the run and one of the main hackers for Rising Tide – she had improved her own cooking skills with the big family-style dinners at the base for the others. One of the rare times that everyone had decided to relax turned into a three-way cooking challenge between her, Mack, and Triplett – Hunter had refused to eat the quinoa someone had cooked. It had occasionally extended into bringing Coulson his own meals whenever he got too caught up in trying to get the alien writing out of his head like a concerned daughter for her father.

“Feel better, Skye,” Kate got up from the couch, Skye automatically reclaiming her lost spot with her feet and saw her friend shake her head at her childishness before grabbing her arrow backpack and collapsible bow and shouldering both.

As she opened the door Skye called out, “Hey Kate.”

“Yeah?”

“It was good seeing you again,” she said and saw her friend nod before leaving and closing the door behind her, leaving her in the muffled silence of the apartment. Skye took a deep breath, stretching a bit before settling under her covers again. She could still feel a faint dizziness around her head and decided that a couple more hours of sleep was not going to kill her before closing her eyes. As she turned over on the couch, she felt the wedge of something odd underneath her pillow and reached under it to find that it was her handgun and grinned. The fact that it had been placed there meant that Kate, most likely, was aware of the fact that as trained SHIELD agents, they wanted their weapons near them. She rolled back over and settled in some more, closing her eyes to sleep. It _was_ good to see Kate again after all these years.

* * *

Skye woke at the faintest vibrating change in the air, surprised at how sensitive her own powers felt as she tried to gauge who was in the room. Her eyes cracked open to slits and she saw that it was late in the afternoon, which meant she had only slept a few hours. At the same time, she used her training from May to assess her situation and saw that the area around her had not changed...except for a brief splash of reddish-black color against the metal grates of the stairwell just outside the window.

Daredevil.

She opened her eyes full and sat up, blinking as the masked vigilante stared at her, the dusky orange-red sunlight finally giving her a good look at his costume. It was heavily padded, probably reinforced judging by the sewn lines and shapes of body armor, but also dashed with patches of black. While she had only guessed that he could somehow see through his opaque red lenses on his mask, seeing it in the light, it only occurred to her then and there that they were  _truly_ opaque and definitely not like the polarizing sunglasses some people wore. She could not even see his eyes; did that mean that he could not see out of them either?

“Um...hi,” she greeted, “uh...thanks for the save last night? Earlier? Uh...don't even know what day it is.” She refused to consider going for her gun under her pillow. It wasn't that she did not completely trust Daredevil; it was more for the fact that he was a completely unknown quantity – their alliance made earlier notwithstanding. That was just to deal with HYDRA. This... She had her powers, and she knew she could blast him back, but she also knew that she still needed training to fine-tune it instead of throwing her earthquake inducing powers of vibration at objects in general. May had been lucky there was noting else around her when they had clashed back in Jiaying's secret compound.

“I'm not going to hurt you,” Daredevil held up his hands, palms up as he perched half inside, half outside.

“Just checking up on me?” she smiled hesitantly, “heard this belongs to your girlfriend or something.” He snorted quietly and the hesitant smile on her face turned wider, “Thanks. For not bringing me to the hospital or that...”

“Too much questions for me,” he tilted his head to the side as if listening. The gesture was strikingly familiar to Skye, but she covered her surprise with a laugh. “Yeah, me too. But thanks,” she said again and saw him nod once and turned to leave.

“Hey!” she called out and saw him pause with his back to her, “why didn't you stay out of it? Why help?” She could clearly see him warring with something inside himself as he held himself still, his padded, but near-skintight suit showing tense muscles along his shoulders and back.

“I used to know someone who was bossy, but always ran head first into trouble without any regards for the consequences; who thought to protect others without any regard for her own safety. You reminded me of her,” he replied before leaving with the quietest of clatters on the metal emergency stairwell.

Skye was left staring at the spot where Daredevil had peered in, a faint smile on her face. If Daredevil thought of her as bossy and as bullheaded as this mysterious 'her' he had talked about, then she supposed there were probably worst comparisons. She hoped that this bossy woman that Daredevil knew occasionally made his life difficult for jumping into the fray without so much as a plan of attack. His daring initiative to attack from the ground floor up while she and Kate had attacked from top to bottom reminded her of what she had done during her childhood. She had to occasionally save Matt from the orphanage bullies who pushed him around before he left with Stick and after he came back. He still had money and the bullies were sharks who scented prey and wanted some of that money – and stupidly thought they could get it by beating on a kid who could not even access an ATM.

In ways, Daredevil reminded her of Matt, occasionally prone to fearless feats and quick to take advantage of a surprise attack – especially when the two of them were on the playground and she had launched the initial attack against the bullies. But she also knew that there was no way a blind man would be able to even be a vigilante – not even someone so good with his walking stick at knocking or tripping people up by accident. She didn't know why she felt like she could trust Daredevil, but she supposed that ignoring her request to stay out of the fray between HYDRA and SHIELD was a good start in building that trust. She also vaguely remembered being carried in strong arms, her hands thrown across his back and neck to hold on as he and Kate brought her here along rooftops and emergency exits. There was something familiar about the planes of hard muscle that she knew she had felt before, in fact, just earlier that day when she hugged her childhood friend.

But that was impossible, wasn't it? There was no way blind Matt Murdock was Daredevil.

 

~END~

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, there is a follow-up story to this one. It will be written after a few more kid-fics.
> 
> Also, yes, you will find out who activated the tracker in Lincoln in the first place. Yes, Skye and Kate will eventually figure out Matt is Daredevil, just not at the moment. There are pairings in this series, but they are either inferred, past, or speculated upon by other characters. As for Skye and Matt, this is strictly written as friendship (even though other characters may see differently to Skye's never-ending exasperation). For those who want a more cerebral and possibly spoiler-inducing look, there is a Peter Pan theme going on in all of these fics if you haven't quite picked up on it yet. For those who have, who wants to guess who Lincoln is?


End file.
